Blocked drains and pipeage systems can be a nuisance in your home, and when left to worsen can cause serious issues that could cause permanent damage to your property. Which is why it’s important to know how to prevent blocked drains.

Why Know How To Prevent Blocked Drains?

Blocked drains are caused by a number of reasons, and when left to sit and become more clogged up, they can lead to things like burst pipes or pipe leaks, and can disturb all of your under home pipework.

Causing blocked pipes doesn’t only create issues for yourself, but can also have an effect on your entire neighbourhood who all have connecting pipework and sewage systems with your own. When your pipework becomes blocked, or you flush items down the toilet that you shouldn’t, the build-up can travel through your pipework and block up your entire neighbourhoods pipework.

If you experience frequent pipe blockages from your bathroom, kitchen or toilet, then there has to be an underlying issue whether it be poorly fitted pipework or a mistake you are making yourself then keep reading. We’ve created a list of things you can do to reduce the chance of suffering from blocked drains.

Pour Boiling Water Down Your Sink Weekly

Sometimes you cannot avoid the wrong things going down your kitchen sink. Accidents happen, as do spillages so if fats or oils make their way into your drain, it’s important that you try and flush them out before the fats solidify and block your drains up.

If you know fat or oils have gone down your sink then you must try and flush them out, you can use a commercial cleaner although it can be hard to find one that can cut through fats and oils. We recommend boiling the kettle then pouring the water down the sink; it can melt the fats so that it can exit your drain.

Be Careful What Your Flush

There are hundreds of humorous stories on occasions where plumbers Leighton Buzzard have been called to the scene in an emergency, only to pull something crazy out of the toilet pipes. Unfortunately, although the stories are funny, they can cause long-lasting damage to the pipes and can cause ever-lasting damage to flushing systems and underground pipes.

The only things that should ever be flushed down the toilet are human waste and toilet paper – not an excessive amount. Items like condoms, baby wipes, tampons and more should never be flushed down your toilet system. These items cannot be broken down like toilet paper, meaning they have to travel through the pipework and can get stuck in your pipes. If they make it through without becoming lodged in your pipeworks, more often than not they cause blockages in the larger sewers in a location not far from your own. They cause a build-up of waste from items flushed down the toilet from all around the UK, and when combined they create what has been named a “fatberg”.

Fatbergs have become more frequent over the recent years as more people are flushing things they shouldn’t down the toilet. The most recent fatberg in the UK was found under the streets of Greater London and was a record-breaking 250 metres – longer than the length of London Tower Bridge. There have been a greater concern over the past few months with the fatbergs collecting beneath us. Deadly diseases such as E.coli and over harmful bacterias have been found present in fatbergs, causing concern for the spread of diseases throughout the UK. If a fatberg were to cause backups or huge blockages and flood homes, these diseases and bacterias would also flood into homes and potentially infect anyone in the homes.

Fatberg removal is a long-winded process as well as an expensive one. It’s important only to flush the correct things down the toilet to avoid spreading disease as well as wasting time and money on the removal of waste products in sewage systems.

Do Not Put Fats Or Oils Down The Drain

As we previously mentioned, sometimes you can’t avoid situations where fats or oils accidentally make their way down your drain. Although you should never intentionally pour oil or fats down your drain. According to Anglian Water, around 90% of the materials that make up a fatberg are from fats or oils which is why they are so complicated and time-consuming to remove.

Collect Your Food Waste

As tempting as it can be to peel your potatoes over the sink to minimise the amount of cleaning up you have to do, it’s more than easy for food excess to find it’s way down to your drain. One small bit of food scrap won’t make a difference to your plumbing system, but over time as food waste collects up, it can become a problem.

If you use your sink for multi purposes and are worried about blocking the drains up, we recommend buying a drain screen which filters out all the stuff that you don’t want going down your sink. By collecting your food waste, you can create a compost pile which not only reduces the food waste going down your drain but is also great for the environment and can improve your garden’s soil quality and grow your plants better. Take a look at these home compost bins.

Commercial Cleaners

There are hundreds of cleaning products out there that can help you keep your drainage systems clog free. Cleaning products work to cut through tough grease, grime and fats to break them down and unclog your pipes.

The harsh chemicals allow them to have the strength to break down even the toughest solidified fats and oils. We recommend One Shot Instant Drain Cleaner for even the toughest drain blockages.

Avoid Blocking Up Your Drains

Using these tops tips, keeping your drains clean and blockage free has never been so easy! If you are unsure of what the issue is, then be sure to contact a plumber who will be able to diagnose the issue and find a solution. For more information on our gas services Milton Keynes or any other information then contact one of our team members today who will be more than happy to assist you.

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